Credit: Czech Embassy / University of West Bohemia, Iva Mrázková

The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Luxembourg has announced that it is organising an exhibition on the occasion of International Women's Day, held annually on 8 March.

The exhibition "Female Heroes of the Czech lands and Luxembourg" will be displayed on the fence of the Czech Embassy in Luxembourg-Limpertsberg (2 Rond-Point Robert Schuman, L-2525 Luxembourg) on Monday.

Inspired by the travelling exhibition of the Czech Centres with Radio Prague International and Katja Rausch's book "Portraits de femmes célèbres luxembourgeoises" (portraits of famous Luxembourg women), as well as the advice of Marie-Anne Werner, the choice of female profiles exhibited at the Czech Embassy in Luxembourg also celebrates the centenary of women's suffrage in former Czechoslovakia.

The exhibition displays a selection of eleven Czech and eleven Luxembourgish women.

Among the Luxembourgish selection are: Charlotte Helena (Helen) Buchholtz, Luxembourg's first female composer; Anne Beffort, a teacher, writer and the first Luxembourgish woman to obtain a doctorate; Colette Flesch, a successful fencer and Olympic athlete, politician and, as Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs, the first female President of the EU Council of Ministers; Ermesinde, Countess of Luxembourg and Laroche, who inspired many spiritual and intellectual currents; Elsy Jacobs, an elite sportswoman and cyclist who won the first women's cycling world championship in the 1950s; Aline Mayrisch de Saint-Hubert, an author, women's rights campaigner and philanthropist, as well as the founder of the Cercle de Colpach (for intellectuals) and the Luxembourg Red Cross; Marie-Paule Molitor-Peffer, a gynecologist, President of Planning Familial and an advocate for sex education; Tessy Scholtes, a politician and karateka, celebrated for her podiums in international competitions in women's individual kumite; Annette Schwall-Lacroix, a lawyer, the first female member of the State Council and a leading figure in the struggle for the emancipation of women; Lily Unden, a poet, painter and educator who was imprisoned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp for her activities in the Luxembourg Resistance; Yolanda of Vianden, a revered countess who opted for a life of austerity, prayer and charity in the Dominican monastery in Marienthal.

Among the celebrated Czech figures are: Agnes of Bohemia, who established the only male religious Order to be founded by a woman (Order of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star); Bertha von Suttner, an Austrian-Bohemian writer and pacifist, and the first woman in the world to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; Božena Laglerová, a singer and pioneer aviator; Eliška Junková, an automobile racer who became the first woman to win a Grand Prix event and is considered one of the greatest female drivers in Grand Prix motor racing history; Ester Ledecká, a snowboarder and alpine skier who was the first athlete in history to win the gold medal in the same Olympic Winter Games with different equipment; Eva Jiřičná, an architect and designer known for her innovative creations; Madeleine Albright, an American politician and diplomat of Czech origin who was the first female United States Secretary of State; Milada Horáková, a Czech Member of Parliament and lawyer who was sentenced to death by the Communist regime in 1950; Olga Havlová, an artistically inspired dissident and first wife of President Václav Havel; Věra Čáslavská, the most decorated Czech gymnast in sports history; Vítězslava Kaprálová, the first female Czech composer and conductor.

The portraits were produced by illustrators from the University of West Bohemia under the direction of Renáta Fučíková and by Iva Mrázková, a Czech painter living in Luxembourg.